Village Preservation’s Oral History Project includes interviews with some of the great artists, activists, business owners, community leaders, and preservation pioneers of Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo. It captures and preserves their first-person perspective on the important histories they witnessed or of which they were a part.
Click here for an alphabetical list of our entire Oral History Collection.
The views expressed by the contributor(s) are solely those of the contributor(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or endorsement of our organization.
Christina Maile is a Greenwich Village-based artist who has lived at Westbeth Artists Housing since its opening in 1970. She was intimately involved with organizing and support for fellow women artists there and beyond, and has drawn from her Malaysian and Trinidadian heritage to inform her artwork.
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Puppeteer Ralph Lee (b. 1935, d. 2023) lived at Westbeth beginning in 1970 and was known as the “Father” of the famous Greenwich Village Halloween Parade.
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Architect Tod Williams (b. May 11, 1943) worked with Richard Meier during the conversion of Westbeth from an industrial building to artist’s housing in the late 1960s and early 70s. He, along with this wife and two children, were also original tenants of the building.
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A renowned painter who focused on views of Lower Manhattan, Ruta (1918-2016) painted for nearly seventy years and lived in Westbeth since its opening in 1970. Born in Germany, he fled to Italy to escape Hitler’s rise to power, finally ending up in NYC. In this interview he discusses his time as an American soldier […]
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Architect Richard Meier (b. October 12, 1934) was commissioned in 1967 to renovate the former Bell Laboratories in Greenwich Village into the affordable artist’s housing Westbeth.
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Daughter of J.M. Kaplan and President of the J.M. Kaplan Fund, Joan Davidson (1927-2023) coordinated the founding of the Westbeth Project, an artist’s residence in the West Village. Joan was a lifelong preservationist and progressive champion, who promoted New York’s rich historic heritage and advocated for elevating a variety of voices and perspectives. She served […]
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Merce Cunningham (1919-2009) was an American dancer, choreographer and leader of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, located since 1971 at Westbeth in the West Village.
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Peter Cott (1924-2014) served as the Executive Director of the artist’s community Westbeth from 1970 to 1973.
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Since 1983, Cominskie has lived in Westbeth, a nonprofit housing and commercial complex dedicated to providing affordable living and working space for artists and arts organizations, located in the old formerly disused Bell Telephone Labs at Bethune and West Streets. In this oral history, he discusses the significance of an affordable housing community for artists, […]
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Ana Steele Clark worked at the National Endowment for the Arts for over 30 years, serving the organization from soon after its 1965 founding. Her oral history focuses on the NEA’s role in the creation of Westbeth.
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Dixon Bain served as the project manager for planning and construction of Westbeth Artist’s Residence in the West Village from 1967 to 1971.
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